EX-DEPUTY DRAWS 21 MONTHS IN PRISON

GREENSBORO -- After admitting to only some of the behavior that led to
what his own legal team called a "long fall from grace," fired Durham
County sheriff's deputy Michael Paul Owens was sentenced to 21 months
in prison Wednesday. The sentence was handed down in U.S. Middle
District Court in Greensboro by Judge N. Carlton Tilley, who found
that Owens had abused his position in law enforcement and abused the
public's trust when he used his county-issued, in-car computer to look
up addresses of individuals that his accomplices intended to rob.

Those abuse findings allowed Tilley to consider a harsher-than-normal
sentence for Owens' admitted crime of operating an establishment --
the La Zona nightclub-turned-drug market at 2825 N. Roxboro Road --
with the purpose of distributing cocaine.

Owens had denied ever confessing to knowingly using his sheriff's
patrol car computer to look up addresses of individuals his
accomplices wanted to rob. Owens looked up the addresses, his
attorneys admitted, but didn't know what they'd be used for until
after he had made them known. The judge didn't buy it.

Tilley also ruled that Owens had failed to accept responsibility for
his actions. In pre-sentencing hearings, FBI Special Agent Bill
Zolper, who worked with Durham County authorities in the La Zona
investigation and was present at Owens' interrogation last year, was
called to the witness stand three times to testify about Owens'
confession, some elements of which Owens' attorneys had attempted to
refute.

Zolper repeatedly testified that Owens knew how the addresses were to
be used and that the former deputy even performed surveillance on one
"target" while on duty and in his county-issued patrol car.

"I wish I could agree with you," Tilley told defense attorney Robert
O'Hale regarding his contention that Owens only found out about the
intended robberies after having given the information to accomplices.
"I sincerely wish I could, but I don't."

"I have tried to give Mr. Owens every opportunity to accept
responsibility," the judge added, before allowing Owens' attorneys a
brief recess to discuss whether Owens would "accept"
responsibility.

When Owens' attorneys claimed Owens had accepted responsibility by the
act of pleading guilty, Tilley handed down the less-than-two year
sentence, which he ordered to be followed by three years of supervised
probation. As the judge read the sentence, Owens' parents wept.

Owens wept, too, as he addressed the court and apologized for his
actions. "I've made some mistakes," he said, shaking as he choked back
tears. "Nothing I can say or do will ever correct that."

Tilley interrupted Owens to say that while Owens can't change history,
he can change his life.

"I've started to do that already," Owens said. "It's a long road."
Owens apologized to his former Sheriff's Office co-workers. "I've let
them down and embarrassed them severely," he said. "If there was
anything I could do to change back time I would."

Defense attorney O'Hale said Owens is "happy this ordeal is over." "He
is very sorry that he got involved in La Zona," O'Hale said. "He tried
to accept responsibility for what he did wrong and that judge felt
otherwise. We didn't agree."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston called the sentence fair and
said she was satisfied with Tilley's findings.

Sheriff Worth Hill said Owens was lucky not to have received a longer
sentence. Hill called Owens' arrest "a real shocker" that broke his
heart, adding that he had known Owens before the case to be an
upstanding and "clean-cut" person of great integrity.

He then said he wished Owens well, and luck "when he gets out." Owens
was the latest defendant to be sentenced in connection with a
drug-dealing scheme at his La Zona nightclub. In April, he agreed to
the plea of operating an establishment with the purpose of
distributing cocaine in return for the prosecution dropping a count of
conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

In August 2006, the Sheriff's Office began investigating a bevy of
allegations about goings-on at La Zona, including a home invasion
ring, a counterfeiting scheme, prostitution and a possible human
trafficking ring. Deputies William "Keith" Dodson and Brad King, who
had moonlighted as security guards at La Zona, were fired after an
Oct. 13, 2006 raid at the nightclub. They were terminated for
violating the Sheriff's Office's moonlighting policy.

Following his arrest, Owens admitted to ordering fellow deputies who
were working off-duty at the club to avoid club bathrooms, refrain
from making arrests on club property and to "crush or flush" any drugs
they might have come across, according to federal documents.